Rights expose up for award

The Australian Human Rights Commission awards honour contributions made to the protection and promotion of human rights.

''Jailed Children'', by Natalie O'Brien and Cosima Marriner, starting in The Sun-Herald on November 6 last year, exposed the jailing of Indonesian boys in adult Australian prisons on people smuggling charges. The children had mostly been duped into acting as crew on what they thought were fishing boats only to discover they were asylum-seeker boats. The boys were jailed on the strength of a widely discredited wrist X-ray, which was used to claim they were at least 19.

The series, across Fairfax Media over several weeks, helped trigger parliamentary and Australian Human Rights Commission inquiries.

Amid the media attention, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions dropped 58 cases. Also, 15 boys were released and sent home. Another five were freed early on parole. The government has now put in place a process to help determine the age of crew who say they are under 18.